Three Kyndryl employees discuss the benefits of volunteer programs and the importance of giving back.

The holiday season may be a time of giving. But at Kyndryl, the practice of giving back takes place year-round.

Kyndryl is committed to advancing human progress in the places where its employees live and work. As the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, the company encourages employees to volunteer their time, talent and passion to one of three community engagement areas: future forward education, inclusive economy and climate action.

While volunteerism is part of Kyndryl’s corporate social responsibility efforts, it also can help to build better workplaces, with improved employee engagement and opportunities to enhance skills or learn new ones.

In the second installment of a two-part volunteering series, three Kyndryl employees from Brazil, Spain and the U.S. discuss the benefits of putting volunteerism into action.

Why I volunteer: Education has the power to turn people’s lives around. I love learning new languages as well as teaching them to my 6-year-old daughter at home. Along the way, I wanted to channel my skill and time to reach more children like my own. With the power of social media and local communities, I have been able to mobilize language classes for 30 students, ranging in ages and economic backgrounds.

After being away from my hometown for 20 years, I feel a deep sense of fulfilment in giving back to my community and sharing my knowledge to inspire others. Teaching also keeps me on my toes, as I must constantly keep learning and upskilling myself based on feedback from my students. I love being part of an organization that allows me to be creative in my volunteerism. Kyndryl has encouraged me to start my language classes on our volunteerism platform, Deed. Today, I have gamified the process and made it fun for others to join and contribute to my cause.

Why I volunteer: Equality for men and women matters most to me. And what better way to strive for it than through my other passion: new technologies. The global pandemic particularly affected the social and family lives of young girls in Spain. This further widened an already existing gender gap in technology. As a mentor at Technovation Girls, I coach girls in effective project management. What I have learned is to empower them and to never do it for them. It is incredible to watch these young women work hard and successfully complete their projects under my guidance, and then to see them re-apply for the program the following year.

Volunteering has brought me closer to the social realities we live in, and it has enriched my understanding of the world as a tech professional. I’m grateful to work in an organization like Kyndryl that considers my volunteering hours as effective work hours and amplifies my endeavors in the company’s communications channels. Spreading the word will only bring us closer to the goal of recruiting more mentors like me to join the Technovation Girls program.

Why I volunteer: My love for volunteerism began in college, when my friends and I supported a local food bank in making backpacks for underprivileged children. The impact we made through that one activity motivated me to continue giving back to the community over the years. Getting to know the people behind the scenes who run these impactful programs is always a highlight. One such memory was when I met an 8-year-old leader of a nonprofit organization whose passion and drive to help others motivated my own.

I believe ‘enabling the enablers’ is just as important as volunteerism. For instance, I work closely with a nonprofit organization called 48in48, which builds websites for other nonprofit organizations that often lack the resources, knowledge or funds to establish their much-needed online presence. I lead events year-round, where I use my skills to build websites, as well as train and empower nonprofit organizations to do the same. Kyndryl shares my passion for this cause and has become a sponsor for this event the last two years, providing all types of support and creating a team to represent our company globally.